This invention relates to the control of fluid driven prime movers such as a steam turbine and, in particular, relates to a manual input for accelerating the control valve position during certain periods of turbine operation.
The control of large rotating equipment such as fluid driven prime movers is accomplished by controlling the fluid input into the machine. Large control valves are positioned in accordance with a valve position signal which may be automatically or manually input. The valve position signal may be the result of the electronic combination of a desired speed signal with a speed feedback signal. In the inventor's experience, the means for setting a desired speed signal may have a slow or fast counter set but the rate set for valve position is nevertheless constant. However, there are so-called critical conditions of resonance or turbulence when it would be desirable to accelerate the turbine through certain speed ranges to minimize the transition time through the so-called critical condition.